Bank of America announced it’s officially going to shrink their sprawling branch system – no surprise for this giant. Again this is simply an opportunity for community banks to grab market share. How about grabbing some of their bankers too – fast track approach. They sited branch closures as a change in customer preferences to online & mobile banking. I wouldn’t argue with the fact that this is a customer segment everyone should be focused on, but that line is a bit far stretched based on the real % of customers that have migrated over. A thoughtful bank might want to think about how to get this customer into their brick and mortar setting with an environment that promotes this type of banking. It’s going to take a meaningful customer experience, not branch closures to capture them. As the large financial institutions are bogged down in the weight of their organization, the nimble strategically minded community banks have an opportunity to re-tool and increase their deposit base. Now is the time to look out into the future and emerge as leader.

For more information on this check out… http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124874668619485699.html